Inspirational Music
by sausuge
Summary: Ten drabbles inspired by an iPod shuffle meme. excerpt: "There was so very little he enjoyed about Earth. And nothing much ever enjoyed him back. He supposes that’s another thing that’s different about this planet." warnings and etc inside.


I saw this meme going around and thought I would try it out. I originally did this meme with ten different fandoms (and that can be seen on my livejournal if you like the same fandoms as me, and FYI: yes, this is a shameless plug.) but to make it easier to post, I decided to write a few more song inspired drabbles to post here. Enjoy! :)

**Meme:** "Put your MP3 player onto shuffle, and write for the duration of one song"  
**Author's Notes:** I'll admit, I had to put it on repeat for a few of them... :P  
**Warnings:  
**Drabble 2: Character's impending death. (not in detail)  
Drabble 3: Is set in the future, when Sheppard and Rodney are old men. (might be slashy, though not intentionally.)  
Drabble 8: Spoilers for season 5 finale.  
Drabble 10: Is a Supernatural AU  
**Other Stuff:** The drabble titles are arranged as: Number. Song Title - Artist  
**Disclaimer:** I own none of the following songs or the fandoms, or really anything at all to do with them. :/

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**Stargate Atlantis: Inspirational Music**

_"If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music." -Gustav Mahler_

**1. Samson – Regina Spektor**

Rodney loves this pier. It's always had the most amazing views of the sunset.

He isn't sure when he'll get used to the dazzling array of colors that come out when the sun goes away. He wonders to himself if Earth sunsets looked this way too. He doesn't remember. He can't remember ever trying to sit peacefully somewhere to enjoy the little things of Earth.

There was so very little he enjoyed about that planet.

And nothing much ever enjoyed him back.

He supposes that's another thing that's different about this planet.

He wonders about this as a beer is placed next to him, and a ridiculously haired lieutenant colonel sits himself next to Rodney, as if there was nowhere else in the world he had ever, or was ever, supposed to be.

"How ya been, buddy?"

Great.

Rodney had been great.

What a world.

**2. Believe – Yellowcard**

Explosions. Everywhere, explosions. Ones he could contain; ones he couldn't.

So many people screaming.

And he can't stop thinking about Carson. Every one of those screams turns into Carson's laughter; every explosion is that last communication from him.

Except it's not.

"The east tower is under heavy fire, we're going to lose it!" Zelenka shouts out, even though he knows there's nothing they can do about it, nothing they can do to stop it.

How many people are in that tower?

God, where is Sheppard?

_Please,_ he can hear himself thinking, _please let him be okay_.

Teyla, Torren, and Ronon stand (and pace) anxiously behind his terminal. He wishes he could tell them everything would be all right. Wishes he could mean it.

"Rodney, I cannot seal off the east hallways remotely, I cannot contain the explosions," Radek is still so vulnerable even after all this time in the Pegasus Galaxy. His voice sounds crushed, and when he turns to look at him, his eyes are wide and shining, as if he's pleading with Rodney to do something.

Like there's something he _can_ do.

"_McKay." _A voice crackles through the radio, and the collective sighs of three people are surprisingly loud.

"_I'm in the eastern hallways. I've got Miko and Vontrum with me. How 'bout some help gettin' out of here, huh? You know how I am with directions."_

And if the sigh was loud, the sudden intake is deafening.

None of them can muster a reply for a minute, not even a sound, but it's so very far from being silent, with the crash of fireballs striking Atlantis to highlight the moment.

"_McKay? Sheppard to McKay, is everything alright?"_

Rodney doesn't even really think about it, he realizes. Just goes. In a few minutes, he'll be surprised that he could outrun Ronon (even if it was just for the few feet to the transporter before he disabled it.)

When he makes it to the east wing and sees Sheppard with his wayward scientists, any doubts he had about his decision (even though he had none) are so far gone, he wonders if they've reached Earth yet.

"Hey McKay, thanks for the visit, but you could have just called ya know. Would've been much quicker, not that it isn't appreciated."

Rodney pretty much spits out orders and directions at Sheppard and urges him to go first, says he'll watch their sixes. Sheppard is too exhausted to notice Rodney has long since blocked all their radio receivers in the east wing.

As soon as his scientists pass through the passageway of the bunker doors, Rodney turns to the control panel beside the door.

"_-pard! It's Rodney! Don't let him do it!"_

Rodney can hear the radio clearly, despite the few feet there is between Sheppard and himself. He turns to Rodney in alarm and the look on his face makes Rodney feel sheepish and ashamed, and he really wishes he didn't have to see him right then.

"See you around, Sheppard," he says as he swipes his hand over the control pad and the blast door closes.

Even through so many inches of metal, and even over the blast of heat and energy and sound behind him, he can still hear Sheppard scream his name.

Huh.

**3. You Could Be Happy – Snow Patrol**

Staring. He couldn't stop. How long had he been staring now? It had to be unnerving, even to the clueless scientist who was currently his stare-ee.

But god, it was creepily beautiful.

Those lines, so intricate; woven together like a spider's web, interwoven just like all the years that caused them. All connected in one way or another.

Those lines, those wrinkles around Rodney's eyes are so wonderfully apparent.

And they're nothing like when Sheppard accidentally leapt through time. There are no deep gauges in his forehead and brow from too many hours of staring at a whiteboard (well, there are, but none so apparent as the ones he'd had _then_; and all of them now have corresponding laugh-lines from the breaks he was forced to take), no scars peeking out from a ridiculous sweater (and god, how Sheppard had agonized over the unknown origin of that scar); just those little lines.

"Sheppard?"

He looks worried, John thinks. (And there are lines for that too; just a few more than John would have liked.) He smiles to make those lines go away.

"It's nothing,"_ It never is_, he thinks.

"Yeah, it never is," Rodney replies, and John can't fight a smile. Obviously, forty some odd years is far too long to spend together.

"Yeah," John agrees, "it never is." and pulls him into a hug. He is only slightly amused by the incongruity of Rodney embracing him back and his memory of touchy-feely moments together.

He is far more amused when he pats Rodney's full head of hair.

**4. Just Breathe – Anna Nalick**

KNOCK, KNOCK!

No.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!

Double no.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK, KNO-!

Fine! Alright, whatever.

"What!" maybe isn't the best greeting in the world, but it's two in the frakking morning, and maybe I haven't been sleeping great.

"I've had a fantastic idea!" Of course he has, he's Rodney, when doesn't he have great ideas?

"Well, that's just great," and maybe I lay the sarcasm on a little thick, but again: two in the morning. "Can it wait 'til a descent hour?"

"Time is an illusion." He waves his hand in an almost hypnotizing way.

"Not when I'm trying to sleep through it."

"Oh," he says dejectedly, "You were sleeping?"

And damn it, he's using _those_ eyes. Thank god I didn't ever have kids.

Sigh, "No, Rodney. What'd you come up with, Genius?"

And there's such a brilliant smile; I guess I can sleep later.

**5. Aquarius – Regina Spektor**

The relation of energy to mass and the speed of light can only be achieved with two particles, obviously, because it is impossible to achieve the speed of light squared unless two particles _going_ at the speed of light collide, in which case, the speed of light is squared.

He has wondered about this not at all. It all seems far too blatant to him. It boggles his mind when Elizabeth asks him about it, and more than once. (What more clarification does she need?)

"So, it takes two to achieve it right?"

"Yes, as I've said quite a few times now." And if it were anyone else, he would never feel bad about his tone, but this is Elizabeth, so he flinches apologetically.

She gives him her ever patient smile, "And it's impossible to achieve the speed of light squared without it?"

"Well, that's the accepted theory on Earth, but of course, we know better don't we? Or at least we should since we travelled far past the speed of light to get to this little abode."

She smiles again, and Rodney's heart (_heart??_) does a little flippy-flop. It's nothing romantic, not really; he's just always had this sensation that Elizabeth is something else. Even though she doesn't have an ancient gene, she is so much more a part of Atlantis than anyone else. It's always given Rodney a thrill to see the way she looks at the city. (It sometimes makes him wish he could look at it the same way; he wonders if maybe someday he might.)

"So with the combination of two particles who are drawn together inexplicably, the impossible is achieved?" and there's something about that little twinkle in her eye that gives Rodney the impression that there's more to this conversation than he previously believed. (And isn't there always, when it comes to Elizabeth?)

"Well, yes." He answers impatiently.

"What're you two up to?" Sheppard drawls lazily as he meanders up to the table he and Elizabeth are seated at.

The adoring laugh that she releases upon seeing Sheppard makes something in Rodney warm just a little more, despite the scowl on his face (and he swears that Atlantis lights up a little brighter every time she laughs, literally.)

Both he and the major synchronize with a bewildered "what?", and that just makes her laugh a little harder.

When she smiles contentedly and looks out the balcony window to the ocean, the look in her eyes makes Rodney want to give anything to keep it there.

He would give anything for her to be happy forever.

Sheppard and Rodney look at each other and shrug. They doubt they'll ever know what just happened in that mind of hers.

**6. Look After You – The Fray**

"Ronon, can you move?"

No.

Not ever again.

"Ronon? Answer me."

That voice is so beautiful.

So calm, so strong.

Melena.

"Ronon!"

"Melena…"

There's a sigh.

She always sighed when she got impatient with him.

He'd forgotten that.

"Ronon, it is good to hear your voice."

When had he forgotten that?

Was he dead?

"Am I dead?"

"No, Ronon, of course not."

"Not yet at least…"

"McKay!"

"What? I'm just saying, if we don't get him out of there soon…"

He can't be dead.

There's no way McKay can still be annoying, even when he's dead.

"Are you all right, Ronon?" is asked quietly to him while the other two bicker loudly in the background.

And when had that become comforting?

"Yeah, I really am."

It was alright.

Melena would wait a little longer.

She always waited for him.

**7. The Future Freaks Me Out – Motion City Soundtrack**

"Wow."

"Oh my god!"

"Hovno…"

"Well, this is certainly unpleasant."

"Alright, alright, we just have to get this under control, everything will be alright. I can fix this."

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing, big guy, really everything's alright. Rodney's got it under control, _right McKay?"_

"Umm, right yes, of course, like I said, I can fix this."

"Fix _what_? Teyla?"

"It is nothing Ronon… it is nothing. Nothing important, just… unpleasant."

"You keep saying that, _what _is unpleasant?"

"Really, it's nothing Ronon, I can fix it."

"Yep, I mean, it's hardly even noticeable."

"Radek, if you don't tell me happened I will rip every important organ out of your body through your mouth, and _then_ make you tell me."

"Yourhairispink."

"…"

"I can fix this?"

"It is not _that _unpleasant."

"Wow."

**8. The Middle – Jimmy Eat World**

When Zelenka was offered a position on a science team in another galaxy, his first instinct was to scoff. ('_Different galaxy'? Do you have any idea how impossible that is? Let me explain to you the ways that is impossible, General…_)

Only it wasn't impossible. (_There's this little thing called a Stargate, _he'd said_, only it isn't really that little, it's kind of huge, but that's not the point…_)

It hadn't really occurred to him to ask why he was chosen at the time. (After all, _different galaxies_, there were more important things to think about.) But when his sister asks him "Why, kolega,why do you have to be the one to go so far away?" (Because to her, the states seem so far away, but now to think on that scale seems so ridiculously inadequate) he also starts to wonder why he of all people was chosen.

Three weeks later, days before he travels _lights years_ in the span of one step, he ask the General that very same question.

"You came very highly recommended." He smiles cryptically.

When he finds out later that he was suggested (no: _requested_) by the very chief of science himself, Dr. Rodney McKay, renowned and infamous astrophysicist, he is flattered. (Well, maybe a little.)

When he meets McKay himself, he is far less flattered, and even a little insulted.

The conversation pretty much consisted of:

"Dr. McKay, I am Radek Zelenka-"

"That's great, look if you want an autograph your gonna have to wait in line, important stuff to do here (this accompanied by much hand waving and flailing) but while you skip of to do that, why don't you fill up my coffee while you're at it." He doesn't fill up his coffee, just to spite him.

Two days after arriving, when Rodney has single-handedly saved Atlantis by walking into the middle of a (large, terrifying, deadly) cloud monster, Radek thinks maybe he is just a little flattered still.

Five years later, when Radek is implementing Rodney's plan to "jump" Atlantis all the way to another galaxy (without being horribly ripped to shreds) to save Earth and billions of people, Radek thinks he's a lot flattered.

And just because Rodney still makes him fill up his coffee doesn't mean he's any less flattered.

**9. All Right Now – Free**

"How did you convince me to do this, Colonel?"

"I promised you food and eye candy."

"Oh, right."

Four prairie dogs scamper away from the highway as a red Corvette speeds by their hiding spot.

"You better deliver on that promise, Colonel, I will be ordering all the room service I want, not to mention you better be the best wing man in existence, and can we please turn down this music, I hate yelling just to get my point across, what's that look supposed to mean?"

"I promise McKay, I'll be the best wingman a college frat-boy could wish for."

The little boy who'd been making faces at them in the minivan they cut off is far too busy crying to tell his parents that the mean man in the red car flipped him off and made a face at him.

"McKay, stop terrorizing children."

"I'd be far more personable if you'd turn this goddamn music down!"

"Are you kidding me!? This is classic road-trip music!"

"Oh, shut up and drive."

Later, two college boys go home alone when they are shown up by two middle age soldiers showing off their battle scars.

**10. Back In Black – AC/DC**

"Sheppard, behind you!"

Just a little too late. The shotgun flies out of his hand as the apparition flings him against a wall. He tries to think of something (_anything_, and god, McKay is rubbing off on him far too much if he's freaking out about a stupid ghost) to get out of the creepy little Ring/Grudge girl's grasp.

A loud bang, and the girl is letting out an ungodly shriek. She turns to face McKay and releases Sheppard to slide to the ground as McKay is suddenly slammed against the brick of the house's fireplace.

"I'm gonna go salt n' burn the remains!" he shouts as he scrambles up from the floor, trying valiantly not to slip and fall to his death in the debris of the house around him.

"Hurry!" is squeaked out from McKay at a decibel Sheppard barely manages to register.

Despite his rush, it takes far too long for him to pour copious amounts of salt on the tiny skeleton (_poor girl,_ he'll think later) and fling a match into the pit in the middle of the previous living room.

When the girl shrieks again, disappears in a hectic cloud, and McKay slides from the wall onto the floor, Sheppard decides to also plant himself firmly on the floor. He can already see the dark bruises forming on McKay's lower back, in the form of congruent little rectangles.

He lets out a puff of air: "Not too bad, huh?"

"I hate you so much."

When they eventually stumble, limp, and crawl their way into a local hunter's bar to get their next hunt, they find themselves choosing between a supposedly zombie infested town (which was equally supposedly being eradicated by a single, badass, female hunter), a town massacred by vamps with a sole survivor rumored to be out for vengeance, and the apparent opening of hell's gates, they sigh before tossing a quarter.

"Heads. Guess that means we go check out the zombies."

"I very highly doubt they are _actual_ zombies, Sheppard, and I'm certainly sure there is a better, more appropriate term for them than 'zombies'- "

"Why'd you flip a coin? There were three choices…" the bartender asks the taller man, completely ignoring the louder one.

"We weren't flipping over which one to pick. We were deciding if we should start praying now, or forget about that and just keep hunting."

"I figure hunting's the option with the more promising results." The short, loud one says.

The 'tender never sees them again. He sometimes wonders what happened to them, until one day he hears about a four man (and woman, supposedly) hunting party, with one loud, obnoxious hunter, who're uncannily prone to trouble.

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Also: Hovno means "shit" and Kolega means "brother". :)

Hope you enjoyed!


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